Spring 2015 - Day 62: India
Waking up at 3:30 was a challenge this time. The three and a half hours did not leave me well rested at all. We receive boxed breakfast from the hotel, which was lovely. They gave us a banana, a chocolate muffin, a weird donut thing that I didn't eat, and a box of mango juice. YUM mango juice.
We were on the bus and on the way to the airport by 4am. The drive to the airport was only about 7 minutes. The process to get into the airport was similar to the first time. They checked our passports way too often and required us to get new luggage tags for all of our bags so that we would get fresh inspection stamps. The process of handing out boarding passes took just as long. Evan, the ship photographer, called out our names and gave us two tickets. We had a layover in Hyberabad.
After receiving our boarding passes we got in the security line, which was divided by gender. There were far more girls than boys so they boys got through quickly and ours was longer. When I was third from the front a large group of Indian men arrived. The security guard let every single one of them through without letting a single female through. It was unbelievably frustrating. Finally and Indian woman spoke up and he started letting us go. By that point the female line was ridiculously long.
That was a really frustrating moment and really showed how much gender inequality there is.
We didn't have much time before we boarded the plane. It happened exactly the same way as last time. Way too many passport checks and boarding pass checks.
This time I was in a middle seat. The flight was not very thrilling again. I slept and and read and did not much else. I got water during cabin service but she didn't pour it from a water bottle. I had done so well up until this point and didn't want to get sick while I was on an airplane so I didn't drink very much of it.
Our flight was a little less than 2 hours, so it wasn't that bad. This time, when we got off the plane, they checked our boarding passes again.
What. How could we have changed while flying in the sky in a giant metal tube? I guess they just really like to make sure we are who we say we are.
The Hyberabad airport was nice but was extremely confusing. When we got off the shuttle and walked into the terminal there was a sign for baggage claim and a sign for transfer service. Some people went up to the desk to ask and the desk agents seemed really confused and then there were some stairs it seemed like we were supposed to go up.
The stairs ended up being the right thing, with no help from the guys at the desk. At the top of the stairs there was absolutely nothing except for another sign that said transfer service that pointed around a corner.
We followed a sign and joined line that went through another security check point. Apparently they don't trust you here once you just get off a plane. Because I definitely could have acquired something I shouldn't have while flying on a plane. That makes a lot of sense.
But oh well, it was what we had to do. We even had to get new tags for our luggage so that they could stamp them again.
It was while I was standing in line that I really needed to pee. Then the security guy decided to check my bag and then made small talk with me about where we were all from and the whole time I just really wanted to run and pee. It was just one of those moments when time seemed to stand still.
The terminal itself was full of shops. Not anyplace that I really wanted to buy anything but they did have a KFC and a mashed potato bowl sounded exactly like the kind of thing I needed, even though it was only 9:30 in the morning. So while every other SAS kid lined up at the wifi help desk I went to the KFC.
It turns out their mashed potato bowl was not a mashed potato bowl. It was a rice bowl. Bummer. Should have known since this is India. Instead I got popcorn chicken and french fries. The popcorn chicken definitely had curry in it and so was very spicy. But I survived them. It still wasn't as good as a mashed potato bowl.
Now I just really want a mashed potato bowl.
Our layover was long, almost two hours. It it ended up being even longer when our boarding time came and went. I had planned well and went to the bathroom about 5 minutes before we were supposed to board but that ended up being futile because by the time we actually boarded I had to pee again.
They rushed to get us on board so that we could leave as close to on time as possible. There were random guys wearing orange vests that definitely weren't flight attendants helping put our luggage in the overhead bins.
The fact that we rushed made me a little nervous but once we were up in the air I relaxed. The flight was short and before I knew we were on the ground. I don't remember what I did on the plane. Maybe this was when I finished Harry Potter. I can't remember.
They didn't check our boarding passes as we got off the plane this time, thank goodness, I thought that was the most ridiculous thing.
I reconvened in the airport and boarded a bus for the final leg of our journey - a 45 minutes bus ride back to the ship.
Since it was Jessi's birthday, she didn't want to spend the rest of the day on the ship. We got back fairly early, only a little after 12. We were all exhausted from traveling so we took the afternoon to ourselves and napped and showered. We met for dinner and after dinner we set off.
Some of the girls had spent the day with a taxi driver that was really awesome and so they planned for him to get us and take us out. He picked us up right outside of the ship. There were 6 of us, which was too much for one cab so the taxi driver they had met brought a friend. Andi, Jessi, and Annie went in the cab with the driver they knew while my Jessi, Maddie, and I went with the new driver.
They drove us around town until we came to a place where we could get beer. Maddie, Jessi and I decided we didn't really want anything. The girls in the other car had to have their driver buy it for them because women can't purchase alcohol. They bought some beers and a bottle of wine and then gave us their bottle. We cracked it open in the back of the cab and took swigs of it from the bottle. It wasn't very good. Not as bad as the wine I sent back in Myanmar but still not very good.
Our cabs carried on into the darkness. Since we were in the car that was following we had no idea what was happening or where we were going. We pulled into a parking lot at one point but then pulled right back out. Jessi texted Annie and found out that we were being taken to the beach but the first place we went was too busy so they were taking us somewhere else.
We drove for a long, long time. We didn't really mind because we made good conversation but it was a little sketchy that we were just driving onto this pitch black road to nowhere.
About half an hour later we arrived at an equally as dark parking lot. We all had to go to the bathroom and there seemed to be only one building anywhere near us. We headed towards it, stepping over puddles as we went. They ended up waking up a little Indian man in order for us to use the bathroom. It seemed like they were sleeping on the floor and I felt bad for having woken them.
We then headed out onto the beach, which was also pitch black but was huge and seemed beautiful. The waves were huge.
It was standing on the beach that I started getting really uncomfortable. The cab driver that they had met was really nice but he was also really touchy feely. Like, overly touchy feely. He was kissing all the girls and hugging them really close. I didn't want to be touched by him and tried to stay as far away from him as possible but he grabbed the back of my neck at one point to scare me and later grabbed my hand and wouldn't let go. It was uncomfortable.
We walked down the beach for a ways and some of the girls wanted to go swimming. I became mom and told them that that probably wasn't the best idea because the waves were huge which meant there was probably a strong undertow. It seemed like a really bad idea to go swimming. But Jessi and Jessi decided to go anyway and the cab drivers stripped down to their underwear and went with them.
What made me even more uncomfortable was that the dude had a wife and he had taken the girls to his house to meet his family earlier in the day. So they met his wife and were now swimming in the ocean in their underwear with him. So wrong, so so wrong.
Eventually we started walking back towards the cars. When we got back to them our cab driver realized that he had gone into the ocean with his key fob in his pocket. Apparently when your key fob is broken and you try to open the car manually the car alarm goes off. And so it did. It was wailing and making all sorts of noise. The poor men that were sleeping in the house we had gone to the bathroom in.
They couldn't get the alarm to turn off. But the car still worked so we would be driving with a siren. He was going at least 80 miles an hour. It was so fast, way faster than he was going on the way there. The other car was long gone behind us. I started to get anxious in that car because of how fast we were going, it just didn't seem safe at all. We eventually arrived at our destination, which was a electronics store.
Our driver woke up the owner and had him come out and turn the alarm off. I guess the theme of the night was waking up old men who were sleeping. But we got the alarm to go off, so I guess it was a successful pit stop.
Once the alarm was off we drove back to the ship at a more normal pace. When we got back to the ship we ran into Kaitlyn, who had signed out of the SAS yoga trip early. Her stories about it were interesting but while we were standing there that cab driver just kept touching and hugging and kissing the girls on the cheek. It just did not feel right to me at all so I pulled Maddie away and the two of us went back to the ship.
I talked to Maddie about how she would feel if her husband just one day brought home random foreigners and then went off with them in the middle of the night. She pointed out that the wife probably doesn't have a say. That makes me feel even worse. Did you know 90% of marriages are arranged in India? Crazy.
It was not a good end to my experience in India. I spent most of the night dodging this dudes touches and feeling really, really uncomfortable. It kinda sucked, I really wanted to have fun but I didn't feel safe at all.
I went right to bed, I was just really done.
